Dad and the Dynamic Duo

Thanks Kelly, Yep, that's me! I got a call from them about 5 weeks ago saying that I'd won the camera. The camera has yet to arrive but I am glad to see that MountainMudbug has taken delivery of the new Jeep! I am a frequent Ritz / Wolf Camera customer and have to say this contest seems to have been a bust dfrom their P/R point of view. Now I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth but if my company was giving away $30K worth of stuff, I'd sure do a better job of promoting the contest and the winners. I still have no idea which of my four submissions was the winner and wish I could see the entries from others too. George

Our oldest cache that is still active may present an example of how it could be done. The response from the Geocaching community has been nothing but positive and the wildlife center has been happy to receive over $600 in 2 years. An interesting side note is that this cache has not degraded one bit since it was set up in May, 2002. I don't know if it has anything to do with the contributions or not but it has been a pleasant surprise. George

I did one. The container went missing recently but here's what I did. I started with large open pine cones that I found when I was in Monterey, CA. I thinned some wood glue from the hardware store and coated the whole thing in glue. I let it dry and then recoated it again. Then I drilled it out with progressively larger bits until I could fit a 35mm film container inside. Using the same mixture from above, I did two coats in the hole I drilled and then inserted the film container. The glue held all the parts together. Finally I did a very light caot of brown ultra flat paint to take the shine off the glue and add a little water proofing. George

And nice self-plug too! The boys and I had a great time on August 15th taking Dan Campana and Ben Jenkins from the Kane County Chronicle on a couple of caches. The article was published on Sunday and can be viewed on-line. Outside of a few very minor points that don't affect the article, I think it was very well done. They even took the time to get the Kane County Forest Preserve's views on our hobby. What can't be seen on-line is that the article was the lead story on the cover of the Lifestyle section complete with a 6 x 8 inch color picture of the boys. George and Collin were pretty excited about that! George Dad and the Dynamic Duo

Not quite a 3-piece suit (I don't think I have ownered one of those for more than 20 years!) but I do wear business attire fairly frequently when I grab a cache between meetings. I even have a suit that will fly for most business meetings but is old enough that if it gets ruined, I wouldn't be upset. Here's a shot from a cache camera: Looks like Tripod isn't into my in-line pic so here's the link. Top row, fourth from left. Here's one from my camera using the self-timer at another cache: As to NudeCacher, I think he is funny and the pics I've seen have been done in a way that few should be offended. My forearm is itching enough from some poison ivy that I couldn't imagine what it would be like if I cached nude! George

Sure! I'm an early riser anyway so for me its a great way to start out the day. Sometimes I can get a couple of caches in before the boys' soccer, baseball, basketball, etc. games on the weekends. One time I was attending a conference in Pacific Grove, California. I'd get up at 4:30 am (6:30 am Chicago time) grab some coffee at the local convenience store and then cache until the conference began at 9:00. Though doing that 4 days in a row wiped me out. I frequently will leave earlier than necessary to attend an early morning meeting and grab a couple of caches when I arrive. That way I can beat the morning rush hour too. George

My wife and I were there in November and did three caches: one traditional which is at the south end, a virt which is at the north end and a traditional (which has since been changed to a log only) on Cozumel. Cozumel is a $18 round trip ferry ride from PDC and has a relatively high concentration of caches. I'm planning on renting a scooter rather than hoofing it like last time. We are going back with family a week from today. When will you be going? Perhaps our paths will cross? Please feel free to e-mail me if you think our time may over-lap and you would like to try to get together. I'm planning on spending a day in Cozumel doing some of the other caches and if I can spend a day south of PDC if I can escape from the family for a second day This is the PDC traditional cache. From there, you can find the caches nearby. Have a nice trip! George

For a more cost effective solution, give this a look. While I still have some things I'd still like to improve on, here is a fairly recent picture with some enhancements since I wrote the article: I am an accountant, not a programmer but I'd be happy to help anyone who wishes to try this for themselves. The Kodak DC290 takes good pictures and can be had on e-bay for less than $150. The rest of the necessary pieces can be had for less than $25. George

Our oldest active cache, Cachin' for Critters, is a themed cache. As near as I can tell, we get a similar number of TNLNSL on this one as we do on our others and those who trade generally follow the theme. Our night cache, A Shot in the Dark, is also a themed cache but I have found that the theme is not followed closely. I think night related items are more expensive or generally not as common so that may explain the lower response to the theme. I have no issue with someone not following the theme if they will enjoy something they find in the box. If they follow the theme, I see that as a bonus. The way I view it, the theme is for the finders, not me. When I seek caches with a theme, I will make an effort to bring something to leave in the cache that goes with the theme, even if I do not take anything. Seems that I seldom take anything these days unless it is a signature item. I don't mind if others do the same. Sometimes though I don't have the luxury of pre-planning so I will TNLNSL. George

Okay Snoogans, If I follow the math correctly, you and I are connected in two moves - twice at least. We each found Good•Friday and Waves and Change Too!. Apparently you were in Pacific grove in July of 2003 and I was there in November of 2002. Guess that makes me connected to Kevin Bacon in 5 moves! We have met BruceS in person. We have cached with Markwell - and in his car. Small world. George

According to the Associated Press, Scott Peterson's defense team is going to attempt to prove that GPS technology is inaccurate and unreliable. Should be an entertaining arguement. "If the accuracy is not precise, Scott did not do the slice." George

Of the 100 caches nearest my house: 10 are ours (10%) 5 are unfound by us* and are active so we've found or hidden 95%, 1 is unfound by us but is archived (94% total) 100th cache is only 8.4 miles away - what a difference a couple of years makes! *I have decided to not cross post my finds - 4 of our finds were posted else where but I have included them as finds. George

Cool! I made the list and will be forever memorialized thanks to sept1c_tank I suppose there are many folks like me who regularly pop into the forums but do not frequently post (I'll have to check after this post to see if I have reached 100 yet!). When I first found the forums after a year or so of caching, there were others who were more experienced than me who were regular posters. It was rare if I felt that I could add something of value. Now that I have a few more caches under my GPSr, it seems that I am never quick enough to respond with something of value. I do post from time to time in topics where I have a particular interest or think someone might enjoy what I have to say. It'll be interesting to see what others have to say. George

Someone is already placing signature silica gel bags with their name/logo printed on it. But, we need more folks doing this. I need to find some, too. It seems all the caches around here are damp right now. I'm not sure if this is who you are referring to, but Centaur from the Chicago area has done these. One time, I had time only to do one cache and I chose one he'd been to recently so that I could pick up one of his packs for a cache I was setting up. Ammo box and one of thoise along with anything paper in goog quality Zip bags seems to work very well for me. Now if I could only keep my little bitty micro dry! George

We started caching with the basic yellow eTrex and used it as our only GPSr until 2/03. After winning a football pool, I treated myself to a Vista. The Vista is my GPSr of choice now while the basic eTrex is typically connected to my digital camera. So I actually carry two GPSr on most hunts. When my boys or friends who don't have a GPSr join us, they use the basic and I reconnect it for the photos. George

I have been paperless caching with my Palm III using Cachemate (registered - best $7 I spent in 03!) for several months now. I would never go back. I can easily get 250 caches loaded and still have nearly 1/2 of my 2megs left. George

David, I have taken my GPSrs (eTrex basic and Vista) on several flights and have been able to get a fix as long as I have been able to get my receiver right next to the window. Last time, it did take a long time to get a fix but eventually it did. Then I was able to move it to the tray table or my lap and still hold the fix. It was cool to watch the progress on the Vista map. I did notice that the altimiter (sp?) seemed to be way off, perhaps due to the cabin being pressurized. George

Yes, you can connect your eTrex to your laptop. The cable from Garmin (expensive) or one you make yourself ( pfranc ) is usually connected to a serial port though many have used adapters for USB ports. Garmin's software, MapSource works well and is great if you upgrade to a GPSr with mapping. Most anyothers will work too as Garmins are pretty standard. I have used my eTrex with Delorme software on my notebook and it is pretty cool to watch as I go along. Since I got my Vista I seldom use it that way. More for fear I will break suddenly and the notebook will crash into the foot well. Using EasyGPS or other software, you can download your waypoints to you computer, load the file on the software and then upload the waypoints to your GPS. The same cable mentioned above is required. Good luck! George

I'm not entirely certain what you are looking for but we have 180 pictures in our gallery. Here is one of my favorites from when I was just getting the kinks out of getting my GPSr to record its location as a watermark on my digital camera: I take many more pictures than I post because many of them have a meaning special to me and my hunt but I don't think others would get the same enjoyment without having been there. George

Seems that the folks at wheresgeorge are a bit sensitive about our hobby. I got wind of it a bit ago and did a forum search over there. Made for some interesting reading. Seems that they feel that we are stacking the hit rates and have apparently implemented a seperate category for "our" bills. Sound like they require that a GC bill be identified as such even if the initial entry is at a cache and it is spent by the first finder rather than moving from cache to cache. Perhaps they will reinstate your account now? George

quote:Originally posted by Pirogoeth:I have a Garmin Legend. I see there are a lot of different accessories available for it like cases, mounting brackets, car chargers, etc. What would you recommend getting, if any? Also, is the map software worth what it costs or is the map on the GPS good enough? IMHO, a case (not necessarily a Garmin case) is the first accessory I'd get. I have a 2.5 year old yellow eTrex that looks brand new because it has live in a Body Glove case since I've had it. It has tumbled down hills, been dropped on rocks, fell off my motorcycle, etc and looks like it did 2.5 years ago. If your legend did not come with the data cable, that is a close second and the power cable is very nice in the car. As to the maps, you don't need them for caching but it is real nice to have when driving to the cache. George eTrex basic eTrex Vista

quote:Originally posted by RPaske:For months now, my Internet browser (IE) came on line with my home page showing the caches I have not found nearest my zip code. But now, When I press the home button, I just get the geocaching home page. How do I get the home page to show the caches I have not found at my zip code? I sure hope this doesn;t sound to confusing. RPaske, Try the following: Get to the page you want through My Cache Page choosing to filter finds. Copy the URL. Choose the Tools menu item and select Internet Options. On the General tab, paste the previously copied URL in the Home page feild and choose OK. You should be all set. Hope that helps! George

quote:Originally posted by cachew nut: Where do you think the electrical power in all those outlets comes from? That was a great post! Thanks (though I feel compelled to reply with many more lines of prose) George

Here's one of my boys at our 100th find which was at Beverly, Illinois' oldest cache: . Or this one: from Playing Favorites - Ice Cream We have lots more! Good luck with your article. George

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